...Collaborating BHN @ Massachusetts Health Policy Commission BHN’s Dr. Katherine Moss, Vice President of Integration, joined Israel Ortiz, Director of Residential Programs at Way Finders, to present at a special event hosted by the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission (MHPC) in Boston. The event, “Partnering to Address the Social Determinants of Health,” served to examine
how partnerships between health care providers and community stakeholders work to address health-related social needs. Moss and Ortiz presented Project FIT (Families In Transition), a program funded by MHPC as part of their Health Care Innovation Investment Program. Project FIT’s mission is to provide support services and care coordination to families in Hampden County who have been homeless or are at risk of becoming homeless, with at least one member of the family with an untreated substance use disorder and/or mental illness. BHN’s Project FIT team provides families with wraparound social services including recovery support for substance use disorders, mental health services for children and adults, intensive case management, and more, while Way Finders provides families with access to stable housing. As for its impact, the teams at BHN and Way Finders estimate that they will serve 149 families consisting of approximately 250 individuals over the course of the 18-month grant. Since July 1, 2017, there have been a total of 193 referrals, with 93 families currently enrolled. According to Moss, “It’s been a tremendous honor to be entrusted by the Health Policy Commission to build a model that we believe will be successful…It has been a privilege to work with our talented staff, and I’ve been humbled by the strength and resilience of the families we work with.”
Care Alliance of Western Massachusetts Goes Live This year BHN joined the Care Alliance of Western Massachusetts (CAWM), a partnership of eight Accountable Care Organizations and Managed Care Organizations (ACO/MCOs), selected by MassHealth, with experience in providing long-term services and supports to individuals in their home and community. CAWM’s goal is to provide cost-effective, high-quality comprehensive care coordination to best meet the needs of consumers.
Responding to the Human Trafficking Crisis On February 23, Maria Almario, a psychologist at BHN’s School Street Counseling Institute, served as a panelist for the United Nations Global Engagement Summit at the UN’s headquarters in New York. Maria addressed the current global human trafficking crisis and offered solutions for the eradication of this and other forms of sexual violence. Maria became passionate about issues of power-based violence and the eradication of human trafficking while pursuing her master’s and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Kentucky. Maria is the author of the “Inclusive Human Trafficking Index,” an instrument used to identify and analyze complex cases of human trafficking. In addition to her work at BHN, Maria consults with several national and international organizations facilitating processes of reparation for persons experiencing interpersonal violence, sexual abuse, and human trafficking, as well as sexual violence among war-displaced populations.
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